9 Tips for Planning an Outdoor Concert Event

Planning an outdoor music event is such an exciting process; the music, the atmosphere, the weather, the people.

To make sure that your concert event is a complete success, follow these tips for a event that rocks.

People cheering at a concert event

1. Give yourself plenty of time to plan

Planning an outdoor musical event means juggling a lot of balls; you’ll need to arrange bands, vendors and the venue, as well as marketing and selling tickets to the event. I’d recommend giving yourself months (if not years!) to plan the event from start to finish if you don’t want a last minute panic.

2. Plan the space well

The music event l will need enough open space for the stages you need, plus backstage areas, catering vans, portable bathroom facilities, and of course camping if it’s a weekend festival. Don’t forget that you’ll need a fair amount of space between stages if there’s going to be more than one.

3. You’ll need A LOT of technical equipment

The whole focus of your event is going to be the live music, which means a suitable stage, lighting equipment, sound equipment, and special stage equipment like fog machine, bubble machine foam cloud machine etc.,

4. Budget wisely for artists

You might be lucky enough to attract big name musicians to your festival, but be aware of your total artist budget.

If you get one huge star act that uses up your total budget, you’re going to struggle to keep festival-goers entertained for the duration of the festival. Think about having an eclectic mix of unsigned, local talent, up-and-coming bands, with a big name or two thrown in if budget allows.

5. Get the right permits

You may not realize this, but if your concert is being held on public land, you’re likely to need a permit from the city. The last thing you want is to get shut down on the day because you don’t have your paperwork in order.

6. Organize entrance

How will entrance to the festival work? What about wristbands, tickets, or hand-stamps? If your music event runs for more than one day, people might want to leave and come back in, which is why wristbands are a popular choice when planning an outdoor concert event.

7. Make sure you have enough security

Music event tickets can be pricy, especially if they’re weekend events, so make sure that it’s impossible (or at least very difficult) for people to ‘hop fences’ and get in for free. Not only will it equate to lost revenue if people manage to sneak in, but it could also take the concert event capacity over the maximum allowed for health and safety reasons.

8. Think about non-musical entertainment

There may be downtime between sets, or possibly technical difficulties arise. Make sure that you’ve got other types of entertainment for attendees, art installations, maybe dance shows, magicians, wandering theatre players, kids’ activities or comedy acts.

9. Market cleverly

Marketing outdoor concert events is much the same as marketing other types of events, but you do have extra avenues to explore. Along with social media and local press, think about the bands and acts that are performing at the concert event. Their fans are going to make up a large part of your audience, so target their fan-sites as well as your usual outlets.